Ann Burden, the Unreliable NarratorPosted April 24, 2006 at Teachnology

I'm studying this book now with a few classes, and I'm just wondering if most other teachers realize that the story is told by an unreliable narrator: that Ann is an oversensitive, neurotic, self-centered and basically immature teenager, and she fails to make any effort to understand Mr. Loomis in a rational and adult manner--namely, by TALKING to him openly!

The first-person journal style of narrative is highly effective for expressing the theme of the story because readers will make the same mistake as Ann UNLESS they do what she fails to do: that is, unless readers attempt to sympathize with Mr. Loomis, understand his point of view, and interpret his behavior in a way that is NOT biased by neurotic fears.

The novel is basically about the problem of failing to communicate with others, and not trying to sympathize with and understand others despite their different ways of thinking. Loomis is a very rational and practical scientist who lacks the sensitivity and patience to deal with Ann's emotionalism and childishly extreme behavior. Her irrational actions in running away and refusing to be friends with him (the last man on Earth!) then push him to be extreme in turn in order to force her to come back. This results in a worsening cycle of misunderstanding, making her think that her fears about him are confirmed and he must be crazy.

One of the many tragic ironies in the story is that Loomis begins to take extreme measures (i.e., trying to wound Ann with a rifle!) right when Ann is thinking that maybe his behavior is partly her own fault and she should be friendlier with him (by talking an hour a day while she stands safely in the road!). She's still nuts, but this plan of hers was at least suggested the possibility of compromise and their gradually coming to understand each other better. But she is too late: her irrational behavior has already driven Loomis to become extreme also, dooming both of them.

The crabapple tree is probably an ironic allusion to the Tree of Knowledge in Eden. Ann picks a bouquet of flowers from it while fantasizing irrationally about a church wedding with Loomis, making it symbolic of their getting married, raising children, and continuing the human race. The fact that Ann does NOT pick any apples from the tree and ends up passing it again while trying to hide from Loomis suggests that her failing is through a LACK of knowledge. Unlike Eve, she remains ignorantly innocent and childish, living a fruitless self-preoccupied fantasy life and interacting only with herself (via her diary). Unlike the first man and woman, who gained knowledge of each other and went on to create the human race, Ann chooses NOT to understand Loomis, and she leaves Eden to die alone in a wasteland.

Why Ann is IrrationalPosted June 10, 2006 at Teachnology

"Ann runs away from Loomis because he tries to rape her. How is that irrational?"

The problem with judging Loomis is that all the information about him is provided to us by Ann and is colored by her point of view. Viewing what he does as attempted rape is her perspective.

But if the circumstances are considered more objectively, what happens can be viewed as mainly a misunderstanding, with Loomis making some wrong assumptions about Ann's wishes and how he should take the lead in their relationship.

Consider the following:

Before Ann even meets Loomis, she is already paranoid that someone who comes to the valley will try to control her. This leads her to hide in the hills when Loomis first enters the valley. She doesn't answer when he calls out in the hope of finding another survivor, and she doesn't stop him from swimming in a radioactive stream.

All her actions here are foolish. She thinks that she can watch a man from a distance through binoculars and judge whether he is trustworthy or not. How is that possible?! Can we read in a person's character by looking at his body language, clothing, and facial expressions? The only way she can learn about him is by meeting him and communicating openly with him, which NEVER really happens--because she never lets herself trust him enough to talk openly to him!!

Also, Ann's thoughts about Loomis swing so quickly from one extreme to another that (if we try to evaluate her ideas objectively instead of just accepting them) she seems pretty irrational and childish. When Loomis gets sick, Ann's paranoid fear suddenly turns into worry, and "the idea that he might die makes [her] feel quite desperate." She doesn't write it in her diary, but she probably senses that he might be the last man alive. It's like a glimmer of a realistic understanding of her circumstances. But, as her diary shows, she is NOT really capable of a realistic and practical assessment of their situation.

When she starts to care for Loomis in her house, within 4 days she is fantasizing about marrying him the following year--with a church wedding, no less! She writes, "I thought, when Mr. Loomis recovered from his sickness, there was no reason why we could not plan to be married in a year....The whole idea was thrilling. I thought I might even wear my mother's wedding dress." Wait a second! Just a few days earlier, she was hiding in the hills in fear of this guy. She STILL doesn't really know him. Yet, she's now planning their church wedding?!! Doesn't that seem a little unbalanced and out of touch with reality?

Then it occurs to her that "Mr. Loomis had not indicated the slightest interest in any such idea." So it seems at this point that Ann has a definite romantic interest in Loomis (albeit in quite a childish and idealistic way), and she is hoping for signs of Loomis being attracted to her also. We can also be pretty sure that Ann's expectations of how Loomis should SHOW interest in her are correspondingly immature. That is, she probably expects him to act romantic in conventional ways, perhaps something like a gentleman suitor in a Jane Austen novel!!

Isn't it possible (even probable) that her behavior with him would SUGGEST her feelings even though she is too shy and inexperienced to talk about them openly? Couldn't some of her behavior seem to him flirtatious, or hesitant attempts to start a romantic relationship?

For example, she prepares a nice dinner and tries to create a romantic setting. In doing this, she regrets that she has to use oil lamps instead of candles because she took the candles to her cave hideout (which also reminds us of her paranoia a short time before, and might make us wonder how sensible her dramatic change in attitude is).

She reads and plays the piano for him during the worst stage of his sickness, and holds his hand; and his later description of hearing the music as he was "floating away" suggests that her care for him saved his life. It seems likely that Loomis feels during his sickness that a relationship is developing between them. When he mentions how nice it was to hear her playing, she feels like hugging him.

However, at the same time, Ann's feelings about Loomis start to swing back towards fear of him. She hears him talk about Edward in his dreams and hallucinations, and she suspects Loomis killed Edward. She keeps wondering, "should I ask him about it?" But of course she NEVER tells him her fears or asks him directly about Edward--not until the very end, when it is too late for her to trust him. She prefers to continue her usual method of guessing Loomis' character on her own by just observing him and interpreting his behavior in her diary!

Not bringing her fears out in the open, they fester and grow. Little things about his behavior start to seem like signs that he is a domineering person. She is bothered when he seems to scold her for going to church instead of planting corn--i.e., for being foolishly sentimental instead of practical. Ann thinks in paranoid fashion that his voice sounds like it did when he was talking to Edward in his hallucinations.

She cannot handle it if there's even a hint of disapproval in his voice. She does not know how to deal with his different opinions, and they probably also don't fit with the romantic ideas of him she had in mind during his sickness. The fear of being controlled starts to come back.

Then she stupidly asks to borrow the safe-suit to go get library books from Ogdentown. Why does she ask this when she already has good reason to believe that Loomis killed a man for trying to steal the safe-suit?! It is obviously something he is protective of, and he's likely to be sensitive about someone wanting to use it. Is she testing him? Perhaps she foolishly believes that his reaction will show something about how trustworthy he is. Or perhaps she is just, as he says, "foolish and shortsighted."

As Loomis gets better, he gives more and more practical advice to her about things they need to do to plan for the future. All of his advice is wise and beneficial for both of them, but Ann grows increasingly uncomfortable just because she's paranoid that he is trying to take control--something that she resists even though, in fact, he is older and a lot more practical, experienced and knowledgeable.

As she gets annoyed by his watching over her farm work and giving directions, she starts to think that she does not really know him: "he had seemed attractive and friendly. But since his recovery, I had felt that I did not understand him at all....Nor did he seem to have any curiosity or interest in me."

So she tries to get to know him better by making awkward efforts at small talk, asking him about his past. Despite their situation of perhaps being the LAST COUPLE ON EARTH, she still seems to want to go through the old customary dating rituals of getting to know someone and then deciding whether or not she likes him!! Loomis, on the other hand, is a SCIENTIST! He is very practical and rational, with no interest in being romantic. From his point of view, it must seem obvious that he and Ann have to be partners and have children.

When Ann's questions about Loomis' past finally lead her to ask (hesitantly) if he was ever been married before, his response is, "I thought you were coming to that." Ann writes that he also "looked at [her] in a queer way."

What is Loomis probably thinking here? We can't know for sure, but I think he has seen signs of Ann's romantic feelings for him AND her shyness with him, and he probably assumes that she WANTS to start a love relationship but is nervous about it--because of her youth and inexperience. Perhaps he has been waiting patiently for her to actually TALK ABOUT their relationship.

When he "grabs" her hand and asks, "Why did you ask that?" he is probably trying to make her be open with him about her feelings so that they can become more intimate.

But he misinterprets Ann's nervousness. Meanwhile, she misinterprets his behavior, seeing it only as strange and fearing that it's another sign that he's trying to control her. Finally, in her nervousness, she loses balance and, afraid of falling toward him, throws up her other arm and hits him in the face.

He then becomes very quiet, and as she leaves he reminds her that she held his hand once before (when he was sick).

I think it's also important here to note what Ann writes about her own reactions: "I told myself it was not really so important. It was the kind of thing the girls at school used to tell about after they had had a date."

This one comment puts their situation briefly in the right perspective: they are a man and woman trying, however clumsily, to start a physical relationship; and Ann is just like an inexperienced girl on a first date who isn't sure what to do or expect. And, as she says, "It's different when there's no one to turn to or tell about it."

What she fails to realize is how different it is when the man and woman in question might be the last two people in the world. Doesn't this situation require a lot more understanding and openness, and a lot less immature concern about romantic ideas or social conventions??

Because of Ann's fear of being controlled, she ends up deciding NOT to trust Loomis or view his behavior as "normal." She thinks his holding her hand was different from when she held his: "There is a telepathy that goes with such things. When he was holding my hand, I could tell that he was taking charge, or possession....He was trying to control me."

The problem, though, is that Ann is NOT telepathic, and her empathy for Loomis is EXTREMELY LIMITED.

The next day, he compliments her about her farm work. Then in the evening he asks her to read and play the piano for him again, which he enjoyed greatly before. But she is uncomfortable and becomes increasingly nervous because of her fearful imaginings about him. When she suspects he isn't listening to her reading, she thinks it is strange and "wrong" of him to make her read. Yet, it's very possible that he just likes to hear her voice. She even thinks of this: "The sound of a voice can be soothing." She also writes that she told herself she was "making up problems" (which is probably the exact truth).

Anyway,...shortly after this comes the scene when Loomis goes into her room at night and tries to lie down with her.

This is not something he does like a stranger. He has been with her a month. She has shown affection for him and romantic interest. He probably interprets her nervousness as shyness and inexperience. And, perhaps most importantly, he is a practical man who is keenly aware of the fact that the two of them are probably the last people on Earth, and they need each other.

Under these circumstances, I do not think what he does is attempted rape. He is just trying (as the more experienced, mature, and practical one of them) to take their relationship to the next level--where he thinks it must inevitably go. He's trying to get past the awkwardness she feels.

Certainly he SHOULD have talked to her more openly about his own feelings and expectations about their relationship. But the unfortunate fact of the situation is that BOTH OF THEM ARE TERRIBLE AT COMMUNICATING. She is too emotional and indulgent of her personal feelings or imaginings; whereas he is too dryly rational, scientific, practical, and impersonal. Bad luck.

The result is a misunderstanding, not a bad man's attempt to rape a good, innocent girl.

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.